Ash, DJ, Kyle, Paddy and Yetu all went down to the Mad Decent Block Party hosted in Johannesburg. Yetu tries to sum up the ratchet craziness of the event and you get to see photos by her and DJ.

The Mad Decent Block Party isn’t just a music event, it’s an experience and South Africa was granted the opportunity to host the first international set of Mad Decent Block Parties. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to party again after attending the Johannesburg leg of the Olmeca Mad Decent Block Party. I’ve experienced my party of a lifetime and everything else is going to seem painfully mediocre.

Mary Fitzgerald Square, the venue of the Johannesburg Mad Decent Block Party, was transformed into an urban carnival. There were roller derby girls, break dancers, men on stilts and fire dancers performing all over the square while the DJs set the tone of the event. The sense of community that this party created was surprising. I know that Diplo mentioned this aspect of the party in the Urbanears documentary on the Mad Decent Block Party but I really didn’t expect to see the best of Johannesburg mingling, getting ratchet together and whipping off shirts. It was beautiful.

There were really good performances by Liver, Paul Dervo, Das Kapital and Sibot. My favourite performance of the night was by the Chicago-based duo, Flosstradamus. The Original Dons threw it down so hard that I have a feeling that I might have picked up all my random scratches during their set. Their ridiculous energy toppled over into Dillon Francis’ set. Dillon Francis threw humour into his set, so not only did I get to see cat visuals on screen but I also got to enjoy well-timed dolphin noises. Even Flipper would have been amped. Then Major Lazer came on and changed the event. The party leveled from a Charizard existence to Mewtwo (in other words it became so good that it didn’t make sense anymore). I have never danced so hard in my life and I promised my friends that I never would again.

My best moment at the Mad Decent Block Party was meeting Dillon Francis and Flosstradamus. I worried that I was going to giggle like a fool, do something completely stupid like introduce myself with, ‘Hi, my name is Humpty, pronounced with a Umpty,’ or even just burst out with, ‘OMG! I love you guys!’. I thankfully avoided these things and I got Dillon to sign an EDM Valentine for me. Dillon, Josh and Curt are such cool guys. I even spoke to Josh and Curt about Loren Wohl, one of my favourite photographers who has toured with them.

This party was actually (lamely) a dream come true for me. I saw Loren’s photos of the Mad Decent Block Party photos that he took for MTV Hive sometime last year and decided that one day I was going to be a backstage photographer at a Mad Decent Block Party. At that time I wasn’t aware that the party would be here so soon and while I didn’t quite get what I wanted I know that this is a start.

A special shout out should go out to Seed Experiences for creating a South African version of the Mad Decent Block Party. Their creative event management style is really changing the way that we get to experience concerts. I’ll also take the time out to thank Jade and Charlotte from Seed Experiences because I directly dealt with these two and they went above and beyond their call of duty for me.

Even Ninja from DIE ANTWOORD made an appearance. Where were you? If you missed out on this incredible party then I have no words for you except to request that whenever you get the chance you must make sure that this party returns next year. I don’t know, tweet and Facebook about it.

I’ll never be the same. Thank you Mad Decent Block Party, Olmeca Tequila and Seed Experiences!